Southern California -- this just in

A Los Angeles Unified School District police officer was shot in the chest just outside El Camino Real High School by an assailant who fled the scene.

The officer was rushed to Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where he was undergoing treatment. Officials said he was in fair condition and that a bulletproof vest appeared to absorb the round.

“The officer was shot in the chest but he was wearing a vest,” said Gayle Pollard-Terry, a district spokeswoman.

“He was alert and conscious and talking.”

[Updated at 12:44 p.m.: LAPD sources said the officer was sitting in his marked patrol car when the gunman opened fire.]

The shooting occurred about 11:45 a.m. at the corner Manton Avenue and Burbank Boulevard on the east side of the campus.

Dozens of police officers were searching the area around the school and an ambulance apparently carrying the officer was leaving the scene.

Los Angeles Police Department sources said the police were looking for a white man in his 40s wearing blue jeans and a bomber jacket who fled the scene through an alley. He was last seen running east on Burbank Boulevard.

Stephanie White, a teacher at El Camino Real High School, said she did not know any details about the shooting, but had been told by school officials to keep her fourth-period English class was on lockdown. “Right now we’re on lockdown with a bunch of kids,” she said. “The classes are holding and we’re trying to keep the kids calm.”